


Twisting Darkened Taunt

by bloodypomegranate



Series: Broken Hearts Club [2]
Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Gen, Sadstuck, Teen Pregnancy, tw: depression, tw: smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 09:18:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3805036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodypomegranate/pseuds/bloodypomegranate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"As time turned in a dry, dusty spiral Dirk couldn’t have told you what day it was even if you asked nicely. In the past week he had barely spoken a few passive words, and over the last three days he hadn’t eaten a single thing, but through that afternoon he’d smoked eleven cigarettes and in that hour he’d drunk three cups of burning black coffee. "</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twisting Darkened Taunt

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE READ THE PREQUAL TO THIS FIC FIRST

_“I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship.”_

_–Franz Kafka_

_June, 1995_

 

* * *

 

 

As time turned in a dry, dusty spiral Dirk couldn’t have told you what day it was even if you asked nicely. In the past week he had barely spoken a few passive words, and over the last three days he hadn’t eaten a single thing, but through that afternoon he’d smoked eleven cigarettes and in that hour he’d drunk three cups of burning black coffee.

Feeling a palm across his stubbly jaw, his feet touched the cold concrete floor. Stretching his neck, he felt a tension in his muscles and gritty feeling that sunk into his skin like molasses. Dirk couldn’t remember when he’d last showered, or even bothered to change his clothes. His life had simmered down to a stale crawl of depressive abandon.

The electricity had almost been cut the day prior and given the landline in the kitchen had been hanging off the hook for the past week, Dirk hadn’t received a single call from his work or brother wondering where he was. In terms of the former, however, he assumed he was fired. And as for the later, well, Bro wasn’t the type to come barging his door down upon a week’s radio silence. He wasn’t the type to show concern much for anything, really.

His bedroom was a mess of half-finished robotic projects, laying sprawled and disregarded across ever surface and spilling onto the floor. So carefully manoeuvring out of the room, Dirk made his way to the coffee pot once again without even a second glance to his cupboards – they were essentially empty anyway. He hadn’t been grocery shopping in almost a month. He’d barely left the apartment for anything but work until that, too, came to an end.

The knocking at the door didn’t filter into his awareness right away until the sound of another voice hit his conscious mind with sudden terror.

“Is anybody home?” an unfamiliar voice called, and Dirk dragged himself to the door.

Swinging the door open, he spoke roughly, “What do you want?”

“How old are you?” the girl questioned. She had a petite stature, short blonde hair with cotton-candy tips, and eyes brightly inquisitive – appearing vaguely familiar in a way he just couldn’t place.

“Seventeen.” Dirk answered dryly.

The girl frowned. “ _Fuck_. Honestly I’d hoped you were at least nineteen. Do you have a job?”

He scowled, stomach turning. “Who are you and why the fuck are you here?”

“I’m Roxy. You knocked me up.”

“Oh.”

Dirk froze, as shock reverberate through his being and a sickness begun to well in the depths of his stomach. Those are never the words he would ever expect to apply to him – his brother had always teased him for his lack of a girlfriend and stubborn unwillingness to interact with other human beings.

 “Are you gonna let me in?” she asked impatiently, eyeing him critically.

“Yeah.” he answered mechanically, stepping aside.

Roxy smiled politely, but worry still weighed in her eyes as she entered the dimly lit kitchen. Dirk shuffled to the counter, shambling through the mess to find a clean mug and poured a cup of coffee. Gulping, he turned towards her but found himself simply staring, with no idea what to do.

The girl sighed, stepped forward and took the mug from his hands, “Thank you.”

“So… uh. I don’t remember much from that night…”

It was a lie. Dirk remembered it with sharp, stabbing clarity; every seething breath and violent measure between. But most of all he remembered the blood splattered brick wall. He remembered all he’d left of himself in that dark ally.

Something about the pity in Roxy’s eyes told him she knew it too.

“Ya got a girlfriend I should be worried about?”

Any other situation and Dirk would have laughed at such a question, but here he simply swallowed spit and shook his head.

“Are you keeping it?”

Her eyes dimmed slightly, “…I found out too late. I can’t abort it now – I’m three months. And even then, I couldn’t afford that. Sorry darlin’.”

Dirk in took a sharp breath, and rubbed his hands over his face.

“Does anybody else live here?”

“Just me.”

Roxy eyed him curiously, “No family?”

“I have an elder brother. He raised me. But we don’t live together anymore.” Dirk answered curtly.

“School?” she quipped.

He shrugged, “Dropped out.”

“Same.”

They sat in heavy silence for a few moments, avoiding each other’s gaze before Roxy sighed, “I need a cigarette.”

Dirk simply nodded as she pulled herself into a tired stand, shook a carton from her sleeve and sauntered out of the room. Now alone, the teenager finally noticed how he’d been absentmindedly tapping his foot a rate a little too quick to be considered an everyday tick. He also noticed he’d been digging his nails into his knees and clenching his jaw so hard his teeth ached.

In a snap decision, Dirk stood and picked the landline up from where it hung, dialling his bro’s number. Trying to regulate his breath as the tone dialled at a snail’s pace, he felt the eventual click of as answer shake him bones – and before his brother could get a word in spewed out, “ _I-got-a-girl-pregnant-what-do-I-do_.”

“Wait what, repeat that? I’m a little hungover. Had a very late night with a couple of nice girls from–”

“I got a girl pregnant, bro. I-I don’t know what to do. I don’t even _know_ her!” Dirk felt his heart rate rising as he spewed out the word in a blind panic.

“Calm down, dude. Fuck. You deal with it. You fuckin provide. Like I did for _you_ when Ma died. You get over yourself, give up any dreams you had for your future and you _deal with it_ _like a fuckin’ man_.” His voice was hoarse and bitter.

Dirk run a hand through his hair, “I-I think I just lost my job.”

“Wow you’re on a fuckin’ roll ain’t ya.” Bro drawled sarcastically, rolling out his southern drawl, “Here’s what you do: go back and beg like a bitch. Or get a new one. I don’t fuckin know. I ain’t some expert at this shit.”

“Could you at least try and care for a fucking second?” Dirk spat through his teeth.

Bro sighed, “C’mon look on the bright side, I was getting paranoid you may end up some kinda fag or whatever. Least you got yourself a girl now and–”

Dirk hung up the phone and slammed a palm sharply against the wall in a sudden burst of aggression. Sighing tiredly, he lent his forehead against the wall, suddenly aware of Roxy’s presence standing in the doorway behind him.

“I won’t be a very good father.” He stated plainly, voice low and gravelly.

“And I’ll be a terrible mother.” She drawled, a cynical tone in her voice. But stepping closer, her voice lowed into a more serious tone, “I’m gonna leave my number here. We can talk more about this later. Just… I’m sixteen. Don’t leave me alone with this kid. I-I’m trustin’ you now.”

He didn’t turn around, he didn’t face her.

“I won’t.”

And then the girl was gone.

With a sigh Dirk’s clouded eyes swept over the messy apartment and with lethargic limbs he sunk to the floor. He was so tired and his eyes were so heavy, leaning a throbbing head against the wall and allowing his eyelid to droop.

And finally, he slept. Not out of tiredness – although he was indeed exhausted – but because for the first time the twisting darkened taunt of his nightmares appealed more than the reality he faced.

**Author's Note:**

> Please point out an gramatical mistakes if you find any!
> 
> Prompt suggestions welcome.


End file.
